


With My Life

by poldarked_fangirl



Category: Poldark (TV 2015), Poldark - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 09:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5737726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poldarked_fangirl/pseuds/poldarked_fangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Demelza cares for Ross after he takes a beating defending her honor. Written for a Tumblr. prompt submitted by: aidorableogeorgous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With My Life

**Author's Note:**

> My Poldark Tumblr.: http://poldarked-fangirl.tumblr.com/  
> My Poldark YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUn8pa-1wLCP_xwb5Sk-cvQ/videos

                  
Demelza sat by the window in the kitchen, carefully sewing one of Ross’ old shirts. She was always mending one of his shirts. Other women would call him careless, the way his clothes always got so filthy at the mine, or torn again and again, but she didn’t mind. She loved taking care of her husband.

“Demelza?” she heard his voice call her from the doorway. Speak of the devil… She got up from her needlework as quickly as she could.

“Ross?” she called back. “Yur early. Is everything—” she stopped in her tracks when she saw him.

He leaned heavily against the door, breathing hard; blood ran from his mouth and a cut above his left eye while his right hand clutched his ribs. “Oh, Ross,” she gasped before racing to his side.

He leaned on her, careful not to put too much of his weight on her slender, fragile frame. She was about six months pregnant with their first child, and he worried helping him would strain her.

“’Ere, come in the kitchen, Ross,” she guided.

“No,” he protested, turning into the sitting room. “Here is fine. I just need… to sit…” he sighed.

Reluctantly, she turned with him, and helped him sit down on the settee by the fire. “Wait here,” she quickly left the room.

Ross leaned his head back against the wood, sighing loudly. He winced as the action caused both his temple and chest to throb. A moment later, a cool hand was touching his cheek, turning his face to the right. He opened his eyes to see the face he knew it was.

“Miners again?” Demelza asked as she dabbed a wet rag against his cut and bruised face.

Ross nodded, wincing again as she touched a sensitive spot. “They said things about… us… about you…” he avoided her eyes.

Demelza sighed. She tried not to show her frustration with her husband, but it was getting difficult. She gently fingered the cut above his eye, noticing how it was almost perfectly aligned with the scar on the side of his face. She loved that scar. It made him look even more handsome and stronger than he was. But she would never tell him that.

“Take off yur shirt,” she commanded.

“What?” he pretended not to know what she meant.

Demelza shot him a look. Ross sighed again. He knew not to argue with his wife when she looked at him that way. She had him wrapped around her finger, and they both knew it. She helped him slide the shirt off his arms, revealing his strong and muscular torso, then knelt down in front of him, unrolling some bandages.

For a moment, Demelza’s mind wandered back to a time nearly three years ago, before Ross had wed her. The day after he brought her to Nampara, after finding her homeless in Truro, her father and some miners from Illugen had come to claim her. Ross refused to let her go, after learning he had beaten her more often than not, sparking a brawl between them.

Ross won, though came out of it badly beaten. She learned then how strong he was, tending his wounds then much like she was now. She loved to care for him. It made her feel wanted. Needed. Appreciated. But she hated to see him suffer in any way.

Almost as if on cue, Ross sucked in a breath at the pain. “Is it bad?” Demelza asked. He didn’t answer, not trusting his voice, but she knew by his eyes. She could always tell what he thought by looking into his eyes.

She prayed it was just the tenderness of the freshly bruised skin that caused him such pain. She worried about the damage to his ribs, not having faith in her abilities to treat them. Ross would always refuse to see Dr. Choake unless it was dire.

Noticing her silence, Ross looked down at her suspiciously. “You’re upset with me,” he said in a shaky voice.

She glanced up at him, her hands stopping the work they were doing. “Not upset,” she sighed, sitting back on her knees. “I’m that worried, Ross.”

He didn’t speak.

Demelza sighed and looked at him. She didn’t blame him. How could she when he looked so pitiful? But she did wish he would take better care of himself.

Before she could stop him, he moved from his seat onto the floor beside her. “Demelza…” he winced and sighed as his body protested the movement. He closed his eyes and took a breath for a moment before continuing. “Demelza, I love you—”

“I know that, Ross,” she cut him off.

“No, I don’t think you do,” he held up his hand to stop her. Looking down, Ross placed his hand on his wife’s growing belly, feeling the baby inside her stir slightly. He smiled. “I love you,” he repeated, looking her in the eyes. “Demelza, there is nothing… nothing in this world that I would not do for you. Or for our child.”

“But, Ross, I’m a’feared fur yee!” she choked out.

Leaning forward, Ross pulled her close to him. “I know, my love.” She cuddled against him gently. “And I admit, I can be reckless. But, Demelza, you don’t know what it does to me inside to hear people speaking of you – of our family – in such a way!” Taking her face in his hands, Ross forced her to look at him. “My love, I will always be here to protect you… with my life. You and our child. I would do anything for you,” he whispered.

Demelza gently kissed him on the lips. “That day,” she began after the kiss broke. “When yee brought me here from Truro... I never dreamed yee’d care fur me as yee do now, Ross.”

“Neither did I,” he giggled. “I thought you were a boy!”

She smiled at the memory. “Yee know something, Ross?”

“Hmm?”

“I loved yee right then. When yee asked me my name and told me yurs,” she smiled again. “I’ve loved yee since then.”

Ross wrapped his arms around her once more. “Looking back, I admit, it took me a while to notice you in any other way than I did that day… but once I did, Demelza, and I suppose I noticed you longer than I let on. Once I did, there was no turning back. I suppose that’s why I asked you to marry me. At the time, I wasn’t sure it was love, but I knew there was something.”

They sat together in each other’s arms by the fire for a long time, remembering all they had done together in the past two years. She had come to him in the midst of a street brawl dressed in boy’s clothes and filthy, and now she was his wife and soon would give him a child.

Demelza would never stop worrying about Ross, but she knew that Ross would never stop loving her. He loved her with his life.

He always would.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written in answer to a prompt submitted to me on Tumblr., via: aidorabegeorgous (http://aidorableogeorgous.tumblr.com/)


End file.
